


peace keeper, hero of the people

by SearchingforSerendipity



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Ba Sing Se, Canon Disabled Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-23
Updated: 2016-06-23
Packaged: 2018-07-16 22:04:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 378
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7286431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SearchingforSerendipity/pseuds/SearchingforSerendipity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the peace come the aftershocks of war. Luckily for Ba Sing Se, it's guardian won't allow it to build into an earthquake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	peace keeper, hero of the people

Ba Sing Se, now one great dynamic mass with its inner walls torn down, never really sleeps. Earthbenders, who aren't dependent on astral bodies to gain power, are sensible to the movement in the ground, the press of steps and movement of tectonic plates. Crowded streets give any attentive earthbenders a spike of adrenaline, and long country days made them drowsy. 

This early in the morning, though, few earthbenders have left the comfort of the slow shifting earth. Except:

There is a garden in the balcony of what was the inner ring. Plants grow there, pale stalks rising high and blooming in bright, lovely colors. The girl sitting between the bushes cannot see the hues of the petals, but she can smell the fragrance of the leaves, the promise of expertly-brewed tea in the air.

The girl stands straight, stern as a small, unshakable tower. Her toes sink into the balcony cobbles, probing the stone, its cracks and vibration and the ever-moving web of seismic movement. There is a whole world underneath her, things she has to protect. From the balcony to the structure of the shop beneath, the old man snoring inside, the cracked window of the neighbors, the weak iron lamp poles in every side of the street. All the many many houses and streets beneath and beyond, she felt and kept watch over, far after the great walls separated the city from the countryside. If she focus hard enough she can sense the creaking foundations of a farm under Ba Sing Se's long, heavy shadow. 

The whole of the city under her feet shuffles, stirs awake a step at the time.

Four boroughs down, seven streets to the left, an alley rings with the hurried steps of an early morning passerby. Slight, small, no defensible metal in them. Behind, a stalking figure with the weight of a knife in hand and two others holstered. It stepped without making a sound, but it could not hide the way the ground shivered just so under its booths, a menacing shiver.

The girl tilted her head, rolled her shoulders. The sun let go of its first light out of the evening, warming her face. She didn't stay there to appreciate it. The Blind Bandit was on the move.


End file.
